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Cultivated Reef

The Official All Solana Owner's Thread


d'Espresso

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In my Solana, I have a MP10ES and a Tunze 6015. I am running the MP10ES on around 40%. Do you think if I crank the MP10ES up to 90 - 100%, I could eliminate the Tunze? I am swapping out the stock return pump with a MJ1200 next week. I just want to eliminate as much equipment in the tank viewing area as possible. I have the MP10ES on the right side of the tank but would like to place it on the chamber 3 wall.

 

i have my mp10 on reef crest running at 75% and the stock return pump turned all the way up...never have had any issues with flow...

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lpsouth1978

HELP! :o

 

My Solana seems to be crashing and I am not sure why. Everything has been going really well, but over the last fwe days things have been going down hill fast. All of the params are as follows:

 

Ammonia = 0

Nitrites = 0

Nitrates = 0

Calc. = 420

Dkh = 11

Phosphates = undetectable

Temp = 77.8

20K 400 Watt halide = 4 months old

 

I do weekly 5 gallon water changes with RO/DI water and use reef crystals. The RO/DI shows no phosphates and I use a phosphate sponge in the aquarium. The Solana has been running for almost 18 months. I try to clean out the back chambers (as best I can) every 6 months. The tank has a fairly light load including a firefish, Pygmy angel, and a spotted mandarine (he eats frozen and flake foods). I also have a number of SPS corals and frags, mushrooms, zoas, and pulsing zenia.

 

About a week ago I lost my clam virtually overnight, followed by my pink monti cap, and my green slimer. Yesterday morning many of the zenia have release from the stock and are floating around the tank. Not individual polyps, but the entire head. Now the Blue Cloves and my Bali deep water Acro are dying off. I did a 30% water change and did full maintenance on the system in hopes of fixing what ever is causing the problem. None of the fish, snails, crabs, even amphipods, seem to be struggling. I really don't want to lose all of my corals. :angry:

 

Any help would be appreciated. I hope that I have included enough info.

 

Please help.

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lpsouth1978
I would definatly get some carbon.Daily water changes for a week as well.Maybe 10% a day..

 

I have already put carbon in it. I will deffinitely do daily water changes starting tonight.

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Hey all,

 

I am finally fully running with my Solana (and now comes the dirty part of cleaning up my old 95 gallon to sell.... I always ind nastiness behind the old tanks).

 

Everything is going well, parameters are good, still using the glass top until it gets too hot, used the waterbottle over flow plate to mount my probes (drilled holes) and my ato float valve. Works grew I think.

 

I am still hang microbubble issues from the stock skimmer, but will see if it clears up in a few more days. I bought the inTank media basket and love the thing already. Well built, attractive, quite functional. Here are sme crappy iphone pics.

5530122523_3106036851.jpg

 

and

 

5530707854_1d82a41c54.jpg

 

I'll get some better pics when my DSLR is returned and I have done some more aquascaping.

 

Michael

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I have already put carbon in it. I will deffinitely do daily water changes starting tonight.

 

How often do you change out your phosphate sponge...? Those absorb only so much and then begin to leak back into the system. You mention that you "clean out eh back every 6 months". You need to change the sponges much more frequently. Also, what type of sand bed do you have and what is your maintence for that. 18 months is right around the time issues start. Search "old tank syndrom" or "two year tank syndrom " for some threads on that.

 

Don't loose hope. its something we have all went through.

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lpsouth1978
How often do you change out your phosphate sponge...? Those absorb only so much and then begin to leak back into the system. You mention that you "clean out eh back every 6 months". You need to change the sponges much more frequently. Also, what type of sand bed do you have and what is your maintence for that. 18 months is right around the time issues start. Search "old tank syndrom" or "two year tank syndrom " for some threads on that.

 

Don't loose hope. its something we have all went through.

 

 

I change outh the sponge every 2 to 3 weeks. As for my sand bed, it is pretty shallow. Maybe an inch and a half at its deepest. I used to have a sand sifting goby, but he caved the rocks in on himself. Now I have three super tongan nasarius snails that burrow in the sand and keep it pretty clean.

 

I have been doing nightly water changes and things seem to be getting better. At least I haven't lost any more corals. The xenia even stopped dying. I started with around 30 heads and now I have about 3.

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please add my thread to the list

 

DSB 34G Solana

 

for those who have the tunze nano skimmer with the inTank collection cup, do you guys have issues with microbubbles, and how did you solve the problem?

 

let the skimmer break in...

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let the skimmer break in...

 

its broken in. it's pulling out a green tea color skimmate with no bioload in my tank. i'll give it more time, but have any others found ways to mitigate microbubbles?

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its broken in. it's pulling out a green tea color skimmate with no bioload in my tank. i'll give it more time, but have any others found ways to mitigate microbubbles?

 

then its coming from your return pump...if you have a filter pad in the 2nd chamber there is no way bubbles are coming from your skimmer in the 1st chamber thru the pad and into a return pump sitting in your 3rd chamber...or you water level is to low in the 2nd chamber and the dripping/waterfall effect is causing it?....

 

 

My god! A 400w over a 34g?! That's just absurd...

 

lol...in America "bigger is better"...

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its broken in. it's pulling out a green tea color skimmate with no bioload in my tank. i'll give it more time, but have any others found ways to mitigate microbubbles?

 

 

My skimmer has been running for a few months now and was producing the good stuff from day one. Like an idiot, I decided to give it a cleaning the other day and now the sob is whistling and throwing out some serious micro bubbles. I keep on tweaking the air intake every other day but nothing is helping. The frustration is starting to get to me!

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I change outh the sponge every 2 to 3 weeks. As for my sand bed, it is pretty shallow. Maybe an inch and a half at its deepest. I used to have a sand sifting goby, but he caved the rocks in on himself. Now I have three super tongan nasarius snails that burrow in the sand and keep it pretty clean.

 

I have been doing nightly water changes and things seem to be getting better. At least I haven't lost any more corals. The xenia even stopped dying. I started with around 30 heads and now I have about 3.

 

W aith sand bed that size you need to make sure you are vacuuming it. Its not deep enough to break down the nutrients. I had the same issue at 18 months untili started vacuuming the sand religiously. I also have a huge clean up crew as well. When if you decide to do this only vacuum a quarter of the sand bed st a time do you don't disturb too much.you will be amazed st what crap you pull out. This should solved your issue. I know It solved mine.

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I had the same problem to and just started again to do deep cleaning water change along with cleaning the sand bed and adding new sand in at little time as possible. Now it just started to looking much better then before.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Mine came in a disaster. Got it from petsolution.com

 

yay box is here, dog is excited as me

elb1b6.jpg

 

inside the petsolution.com box, there is a tank box by current

20gd0fm.jpg

 

now heres the original solana box

2yz0bja.jpg

 

Inside, if you look at the middle chamber at back, you can see a crack already before I even touched the tank

6qa9zs.jpg

 

Heres a focused crack 1st crack

2nuq108.jpg

 

If you look closley, the 1st crack, goes all the way down to the tank.

n1f904.jpg

 

2nd crack on 3rd chamber, around 3? inches big

 

3rd crack is in the 3rd chamber as well, but it sits under the water pump, and i tried to take it, but too far for my camera to catch the crack

 

but anyway, this ones the 2nd crack

2vx2bue.jpg

 

Skimmer part with a crack

zuxkg.jpg

 

Skimmer cylinder? not glues all the way in, bearly intact

2lx9y0n.jpg

 

Random plastic part I found broken. I dont know where this goes

eb6ip1.jpg

 

 

 

 

Glass experts, what glass do you think this is. It looks pretty green, but vendors say this is low-iron glass

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Did you get it out yet? I would bet one of the plumbing snakes that have a pigtail end on it will get it out.

 

Yelp. Just used a cheap wire coat hanger like they give you from the cleaners...

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I thought I'd add some pictures from my tank....It's a work in progress...but it's progressing! I'm always open to feedback and advice!

 

5634015944_92cde1e71a.jpg

_DSC4743 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5633457803_4918788f15.jpg

_DSC4691 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5633430579_c00c1482d7.jpg

_DSC4692 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5633430747_4ee2568136.jpg

_DSC4693 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5634014416_6ee858654e.jpg

_DSC4694 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5633431431_a0cec7fe84.jpg

_DSC4697 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5634015074_91924785b6.jpg

_DSC4698 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5633431749_6395b46baf.jpg

_DSC4699 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5633431923_044e7f60a5.jpg

_DSC4700 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5633432053_5ebc0be598.jpg

_DSC4702 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

5633432319_4910d18b4b.jpg

_DSC4730 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5634016576_58522f9318.jpg

_DSC4761 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5634016342_4862f33a3e.jpg

_DSC4752 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5634016732_0b05f712d3.jpg

_DSC4766 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

(he likes to eat snails!)

5633433535_42b69eff12.jpg

_DSC4773 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5634017012_e88a7f0a8d.jpg

_DSC4775 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

 

5633458079_0468ec423e.jpg

_DSC4714 by RickwSmith.com, on Flickr

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NirvanaandTool

My Solana is done .... Got rid of it yesterday.

Swapped with a guy from my reef club for a 20" reef ready acrylic cube. He wanted an AIO and I wanted a sump so it was the perfect trade.

 

And now since I'm all kinds of obsessed with mantis shrimp after getting my G. Viridis, I think this new tank will have to house a pretty O. Scyllarus peacock mantis. :D

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Hi! I'm starting my first ever salt water reef tank with a Solana 34 that I got a great deal on barely-used. however, it doesn't come with lights. What lights are you all using? Pros/cons? I don't especially love the look of the pendants. And I do want enough light to grow all corrals eventually. Suggestions?

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rick4him - that is one nice corals you have in there! Wow, that montipora is very beautiful and it have grown alot!

 

jcieutat - the hanging kit for your light looking great! Do you have a closer FTS so we all can see whatcha working with in there. thanks

 

playapixie - Get you a Sol Blu AI or Maxspect G2 160w, works wonder!

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I still can't get a decent shot with this Nikon DSLR. Not sure what I am doing wrong. I am going to rid myself soon of the leather on the right to make room for something more attractive. I lost my blue anthelia coral. I am not sure what happened because I do a weekly 10% water change and my parameters are always perfect.

 

DSC_3237.jpg

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